Cognitive Behavioural Therapy As A Treatment

Knowledge Of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

The problem of treating addiction and mental illness, which can be a result of unhealthy thoughts and feelings can be addressed by cognitive-behavioural therapy.

In the 1960s Dr. Aaron T. Beck founded a type of mental health counselling known as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Get The Resources To Empower You In Defeating Addiction

Defeating addiction calls for input from many people and the deployment of a lot of resources. Outpatient or Inpatient addiction treatment programs will help you achieve sobriety and keep from relapsing. You can also learn the skills you need to stay sober from available psychological counsellors.

Make the life changing step today and find an addiction treatment facility.

Cognitive-Behavioural therapy is helpful to people to address any problematic thoughts and feelings which they could have in order to overcome addiction.

CBT is now an internationally accepted mode of treatment for addictions. CBT trains recovering addicts to find connections between their feelings, thoughts, and actions and increase their awareness of how these things affect their recovery.

Apart from addiction, CBT is also used for treating co-occurring disorders such as:

Nervousness

ADD or Attention Deficit Disorder

Various forms of bipolar disorder

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder [OCD]

Eating disorders

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD]

The CBT centres are everywhere and you can attend anyone to get help today.

Ready to Get Help?

How Cbt Works

Lack of proper reason or sense is what causes people to behaviour in a certain tragic way and this explanation is according to Cognitive Behavioural therapy. The feelings and behaviours of people could be coming as a direct result from past experiences and factors related to the environment.

The patients can easily get to know the thoughts that are turning them to drug abuse through the help of the therapists. Involuntary ideas from a sudden urge and frequently emanates from a mistaken belief and a subconscious way of thinking based on low esteem and fear. People start to use some of the rugs in an effort to cover up these thoughts.

When persons suffering from addiction realize the reason why they feel or act in a definite way and how these feelings and actions trigger drug use, they are better armed to combat their addictions.

Facing these sensitive areas often leads a patient to get over the acute pain they cause. Once they can cope with the issues without freaking out, they are then taught how to cultivate healthy habits in place of the substances they were addicted to.

Dependency Treatment And Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Whenever there is an addiction, there is usually another mental issue such as depression and anxiety disorders and these usually stem from automatic negative thoughts.

It means that automatic thoughts can make a person more likely to take drugs and drink alcohol.

Triggers - certain situations that provoke, i.e. "trigger", cravings for substance during the day - prevent many addicts from living a sober life. There are a couple of ways that these triggers can be prevented from causing relapse.

Cbt Aids People In Overcoming Their Drug Addiction And Alcoholism By

The false beliefs and insecurity issues that causes substance abuse can be resolved using CBT.

Strengthen the patient with better ways of self-motivation.

Training the patient on how to express themselves better.

How To Manage Triggers

Recognise

You need to recognise the things that make you start using the drugs.

Shun

Abstract oneself from trigger situations whenever it's possible.

Deal With Them (Cope)

Using CBT techniques, examine and mitigate emotions and thoughts that provoke substance use.

The techniques provided by the cognitive-behavioural therapists can be practiced beyond the office of the therapist. Whether you are at home or in a group, there are many situations that you can use to practice the CBT exercises.

Some of the self-help exercises taught in support groups such as SMART - Self Management and Recovery Training incorporate certain aspects of CBT.

Cbt Therapy Principles

Therapists that practice CBT use special exercises to facilitate addiction recovery.

Here are some examples of CBT techniques that are widely used in treatment of addictions:

Keeping Thought Records

The patients are encouraged to stop and evaluate their thoughts see if they are worth keeping them or if they are better discarded.

They write down of pros and cons of their automatic thoughts to compare and set up the former against the latter.

The aim is to help people switch to more balanced and less rough thoughts by taking stock of what they are thinking.

Example: "My manager thinks I'm useless." I need to have a drink to feel better" turns into "It's ok to make mistakes, and I will learn from them. I will have a chance to prove my worth to my supervisor by rectifying my mistake. I can change without having to use alcohol."

Behavioural Experiments

These exercises are helpful in contrasting negative thoughts with the positive ones to understand which one is better effective for changing behaviour.

Some people can better judge themselves while others can complement themselves.

These experiments are useful in finding out what causes an individual to improve their behaviour.

Example: "when I criticize myself after indulging in too much drink, I drink less" vs. "when I encourage myself that I am better off without so much drinking, I drink less."

Creating Images In Your Mind

This involves bringing up memories that cause highly negative feelings.

This will involve assessing all the features such as feelings and the responses they had to that particular feeling.

The anxiousness caused by certain negative experiences can be lessened by going over these experiences over and over.

Example: A person revisits a traumatic event from their childhood. Everything they went through at that time is clear as day to them. The consistent exposure to his past begins to cause him less pain and reduces the requirement to self-medicate with the use of alcohol or drugs.

Pleasant Activity Plan

This is a practice involving creating a healthy weekly list, entertaining practices to halt an individual's daily activities.

These activities must be modest and stress-free while at the same time inspiring constructive feelings.

Planning the positive activities contributes to the reduction of negative feelings being generated and a resultant urge to indulge in drinking or drug use.

Example: It will be better for an overworked financial advisor to consider relaxing at his or her desk for 15 minutes every day, rather than indulging in drugs or alcohol on the job. They may choose to use that time to listen to some music or read on something interesting.

How Cbt Or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Varies From Other Therapies

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy take a more practical approach to therapy as compared to other methods.

The CBT sessions aren't simply about the therapist quietly listening while the patient goes on and on about their lives. Instead of this, therapists and addicts carry out joint activities aimed at overcoming the addiction.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is based on action oriented, quick treatment. Most of the 60 - 90 day rehab programs have CBT as a component that equips addicts with immediate techniques to help in coping.

Other psychotherapy approaches could take up to a number of years to produce results. Just sixteen sessions of CBT is often enough to obtain considerable improvement.

Due to it's highly adaptable nature, CBT is used in both private and group counselling and it is also used in residential and non-residential rehab programs. There are many addiction treatment clinics and professionals who incorporate CBT in their treatment programs.